Massachusetts’ three casinos took it on the chin in November as re-imposed pandemic restrictions kept gamblers – and revenue – at bay. 

Figures released Tuesday by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC) show the state’s three gaming venues generated combined gaming revenue of around $45m in November, more than one-third below its October total. 

MGM Resorts’ MGM Springfield generated a mere $10.5m, barely half its November 2019 total and a $7m decline from October. November’s tally was also $200k lower than July 2020, a month in which the property was open for less than three weeks following COVID-19’s initial shutdown.  

To put that in full perspective, there are only two months in which MGM Springfield has generated less than November’s total – March 2020 ($9.3m), during which the property was forced to close mid-month due to COVID’s initial wave, and August 2018 ($9.5m), during which the newly opened property was only in business for eight days. 

BBL founder Leo De Biase believes that Brazil can lead the esports market heading into 2021 and beyond. An industry veteran in the esports business, De Biase sat down with Calvinayre.com lead reporter Rebecca Liggero Fontana to discuss the Brazilian market’s efforts to become a leader in the esports market.

Like many in the industry over the last 12 months, BBL has experienced a massive boom in the esports market. BBL recently announced plans to construct the largest Battle Royale arena in the world in Sao Paulo. According to De Biase, the stadium will be a watershed moment for BBL and esports in Brazil.

“We’re going to build this huge facility I think it’s going to be like something like 32,000 square feet. It’s going to be a monster with 2,000 seats and the largest LED wall in the world. I think it’s something like 480 square meters of LED panels,” he said.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38zNzD4hyp0&feature=youtu.beVideo can’t be loaded because JavaScript is disabled: Brazil’s esports future is bright: BBL’s Leo De Biase (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38zNzD4hyp0&feature=youtu.be)

Knowledge is power, and the top 10 business books below can give gambling operators and affiliates that extra edge for 2021. While there’s a plethora of books released over the last 12 months, we’ve narrowed the field to 10 must haves that you need to add to your library.

From leadership to building resilience there’s something on the list that will help you develop a new skill or give you that piece of wisdom that you have been searching for. All you need to do now is to make the time and give yourself the edge in 2021.

Can’t Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds – David Goggins

Goggins is a retired US Navy Seal, who served in the Iraq War. Goggins is an ultra-marathon runner, and is considered by many to be one of the top endurance athletes in the U.S. He holds the Guinness World Record for most pull-ups done in 17 hours.

Genius Sports may have just scored a touchdown. The sports data company, which is said to be considering the launch of an initial public offering (IPO), has signed a “definitive agreement” to purchase Sportzcast, Inc., a firm that distributes scoreboard data systems across the U.S. The arrangement, if completed, will allow Genius Sports to take over all of Sportzcasts’ assets and intellectual property (IP), including the widely-used Scorebot scoring system. 

Genius Sports has decided to keep quiet on the amount it is paying for the acquisition, but the financial rewards are going to be substantial. Scorebot is a data collection system that is used extensively throughout all of North America and which is tied directly to event scoreboards in order to provide official real-time game data. Having access to a uniform supply of data across multiple sports events makes the introduction of any gambling options substantially easier for operators.

Says Sportzcast President Michael Connell, “Genius is the ideal partner to accelerate our innovation and supercharge Sportzcast’s global growth through its strong distribution network. We are thrilled to join the Genius team and offer exciting new capabilities for our customers and partners.”

Scorebot can be customized for use in around 194 different scoreboard systems found at various sports venues. It is said to already be installed at more than 6,000 venues around the world, and is installed at 400 colleges and universities in the US, as well as in use by more than 50 live sports event streaming services. 

The first week of December delivered a drop in gross gaming revenue (GGR) for Macau’s casinos following a similar decline that ran in November. There are now only two weeks left in the year and the chances of ending 2020 on a high note aren’t looking great. The only bright spot is that the second week of the month has brought a little better GGR report to the city, but the year’s performance is still going to end up being a write-off. 

The average daily rate (ADR) of GGR in Macau hovers around $32.2 million, according to data provided by the Sanford C. Bernstein brokerage. This is much better than the $25 million that was reported in the first week, and the total for December 1-13 was around $375 million, or an ADR of $28.8 million. Comparatively speaking, this performance was a 14% jump over November’s performance, but it is still off by around 65% from where Macau’s GGR was a year ago.

The end result for 2020 will most likely be a GGR decline of around 65-69%, according to Bernstein analysts Vitaly Umansky, Tianjiao Yu and Kelsey Zhu. It’s essentially time to just tread water through the end of the year and hope that 2021 brings much better results. The analysts believe this is possible, predicting that the year-end numbers next year could be close to around 80% of what they were last year. Full recovery, however, won’t be possible until 2022. 

The eventual improvement could be fueled by Wynn Resorts and its Wynn Macau Ltd. operations, which have already gotten a head start on recovery. The company reports that its GGR in both October and November was better than what had been seen in the rest of the local market and this could ultimately give the city a boost in returning to normal. Wynn Macau saw GGR in the two months that was 31% of what it was in the same period last year, but this was still better than the 28.4% average for the entire local market.